Kaitai 1, Me 0

Ah the first dirt crit. I brought an old friend, or at least I thought it was my friend. 2000 Gary Fisher Kaitai, imported from North Carolina where I bought it brand spanking new. We've been through a lot. A couple rear derailures, that included some spectacular failures indeed. An old spring in oil fork, that last year was upgraded to a the extreme to a Fox RLC 2008 edition, and now currently sports a 2003 Duke POS that claims to have some rebound control. Basically I have a philosphy on this bike, I'll maintain the consumables like cables, brakes, and chains but everything else I get for free. Not spending money on this bike for upgrades. Case in point, the drive train is all new except for the OEM cranks and chain rings. The cassette I got with store credit Sara won. The front derailure is premium XTR I was given from a friend. The seat I traded for. The rear wheel I was given. The fork is Sara's old fork since she now sports at 2008 spec Fox RLC that I acquired at a very low price that to a friend who is super nice and really knows a lot about forks. The tires are a mix match of tires Sara won. Can you tell she's better than me? I don't ride this much but I do keep in running just in case someone shows up and needs a ride or as was the case tonight I wanted to ride it.

Anyways, back to tonight. My old friend was going fine in the warm up. Then the race started. I lined up and hoped to be at the back. Nope, front row. Damn. We start and I roll in back to start. Pass two riders and then I hop on the train in front. We came to the creek crossing and BAM. Down I went. My old friend paid me back for not riding it for a few months. My good friend and teammate went by laughing at me. So I did want any self respecting friend should do. I pushed him off his bike. Yep, that right. I'm down, and now so was he. Not so funny now is it? I the mean time I lost the train. Great. Get going again and now behind my teammate. Came to the S turns at the S/F and now he drops it. First thought in my mind is that he will push me off so I swing wide. For some reason he didn't pay me back. I was really expecting it. Oh well. After that I settle in and start trying to catch riders. Slowly I did. A couple here, one there. It took a few laps to get my shifting right. I treat dirt crits like road racing, down shift if needed and then accel out of the turns. It took me a couple of laps to hit my shifting and braking points. Eventually I got better, but still not that great. In the end I was as high as 7th and tried to close down on 6th, but I couldn't. I'm slow. One last time across the creek and I dorked it up again and had to put a foot down. Lost 7th there and rolled home 8th. Lame. I had some good competition and had fun so that's all I was looking for.

After the finish I grabbed a cold Bud and washed down my sorrows. Thanks to the Pfoodman and all those that helped tonight. I'll be back next week. Perhaps with big wheels and less gears.
We will see.